Atomic veterans group lashes out at author of "Last Train to Hiroshima"

The veterans who were responsible for flying the planes that dropped
an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945 are incensed about claims made
in a recently published book, Last Train from Hiroshima by Charles Pellegrino.
The military organization that was responsible for the bombing missions on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki was known as the 509th Composite Group, headed by
Col. Paul W. Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay.

The book is rife with errors; take this one as a start. Pellegrino falsely
claims that a radiation accident took place in the Tinian Island assembly shed
containing the Hiroshima-mission atomic bomb (nicknamed “Little Boy”) on
the evening of August 4th that resulted in the death of a young (unnamed)
civilian scientist. Author Pellegrino speculates this might explain why “even
Tibbets became sick at the time of the Hiroshima mission, and was bed-ridden
on Tinian during the Nagasaki mission.” Enola Gay Navigator Major Theodore
J. Van Kirk vehemently denies that claim. “Tibbets was never sick during the
Hiroshima mission and was never bed-ridden during the Nagasaki mission.
This is utterly preposterous.”
2

In his book, author Pellegrino claims Los Alamos scientist Luis
Alvarez participated in the final assembly of the Little Boy atomic bomb. He
states that a portion of the uranium assembly had “surged long enough to
reduce the weapon’s efficiency” to the point of it acting like a “dud” when
dropped on Hiroshima. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
According to a Los Alamos document in the National Archives, all of the
uranium and the four initiators had been inserted into Little Boy on July 30th
(five days before the falsely alleged August 4th accident) and “no further
handling of these parts was necessary.” While the nuclear components were not
touched again, the bomb casing was opened after that date only to install fresh
batteries just before it was rolled out of the assembly building on August 5th
and placed inside the Enola Gay.

Retired scientist Richard Malenfant devoted most of his long Los
Alamos career studying not only the Little Boy atomic bomb, but its effects on
the residents of Hiroshima. Referring to what he had read, Malenfant wrote
“The observations regarding Little Boy and the Hiroshima mission are
ridiculous fabrications and attempts to revise history. They don’t even make
interesting science fiction. The radiation effects described in the book are
generally not factual.” He added, “There is no merit in Pellegrino's work.”

Alan Carr, the official historian at the Los Alamos weapons laboratory
where the Little Boy bomb was produced in 1945, said that the book “read
more like a technically dubious piece of science fiction than a historical
rendering of actual events.” He said that there was no accident or technical
failure. John Coster-Mullen, widely-recognized author of Atom Bombs, The
Top Secret Inside Story of Little Boy and Fat Man, agreed and said that
Pellegrino’s book “contained so many errors and outright falsifications as to
make it a work of fiction.”

Mr. Pellegrino claims in his book that a person named Joseph Fuoco
flew on a B-29 escort plane, named Necessary Evil that was to take
photographs of the Hiroshima explosion. He writes that Fuoco, at the last
minute, was “transferred from his beloved, battle-hardened plane Bad Penny”
and replaced Flight Engineer Sgt. James R. Corliss aboard Necessary Evil by
orders of Colonel Costalati.

The official records containing the names of the over 1,800 members
of the 509th Composite Group show that no person named Joseph Fuoco was
3
ever a part of the 509th much less on the airplane. There is no record of a
“Colonel Costalati” being present on Tinian in connection with the 509th nor
does the name Joseph Fuoco appear on the Bad Penny crew lists. Any last
minute crew changes on Necessary Evil would have been recommended to
Colonel Tibbets by the Airplane Commander Capt. George W. Marquardt,
whom author Pellegrino also misspelled “Marquart” throughout this book.

Fellow crew member Russell E. Gackenbach was stationed within
arm’s reach of actual Flight Engineer James Corliss inside Necessary Evil and
is astounded that some imposter has put himself on the plane and that
Pellegrino would not have bothered to easily check to see if it was true. Mr.
Gackenbach wrote, “As the Navigator of the Necessary Evil on August 6, 1945,
I can attest to the fact that James Corliss was the Flight Engineer on our plane
as it accompanied Colonel Tibbets on the raid on Hiroshima. James Corliss did
not get sick and was not replaced by Joseph Fuoco. In fact I never knew a
Joseph Fuoco.”

Another crew member who flew on the Hiroshima mission is equally upset.
Major Theodore J. Van Kirk, Navigator on the Enola Gay, said, “I am
outraged! I have never heard of Joseph Fuoco. He was never around the 509th
and his story is a complete fabrication.”

For the record, since Joseph Fuoco was never a member of the 509th
and thus not connected in any way with the Hiroshima mission, any statements
and descriptions made by him and quoted in this book about what he allegedly
did on that mission, what he saw out the window of Necessary Evil, statements
made to him before, during, and after the mission by members of the 509th,
along with any claims by him to be in 509th group photos and any participation
in 509th post strike crew interviews, are completely fraudulent and without any
merit whatsoever.

Pellegrino also states in his book that, “In private moments, friends
reported that Tibbets was occasionally horrified by what he had seen over
Hiroshima.” Enola Gay Navigator Van Kirk was a lifelong close personal
friend of Tibbets and served with him on almost 60 World War II combat
missions. He was especially incensed by what he considers to be a despicable
claim. “Paul Tibbets never expressed regret over what was done during both
atomic missions and was never horrified over what he had seen over
Hiroshima. He always stated that both atomic missions were absolutely
4
necessary and he would have done anything to defeat Japan. Paul Tibbets
always recognized the dropping of the atomic bombs was an act of war done to
end that war. He told me this in the many long hours of conversation I had with
him immediately following the Hiroshima mission, and he held that viewpoint
to the day he died.”

Pellegrino reserved the final insult for the end of his book. On the very
last page, he quotes from an alleged 1999 letter from Tibbets to Nagasaki strike
aircraft Flight Engineer John Kuharek and “cited by J. C. Muller at the 2005
Tinian Symposium.” Pellegrino states that in this letter “Tibbets expressed his
belief that after Hiroshima and the massive firebombings elsewhere, Japan was
so defeated and so close to surrender that Sweeney's bomb had become
redundant if not completely irrelevant, and never needed to be dropped in the
first place.” The letter in question quoted at this 2005 Tinian Symposium was
in fact actually written in 1995 by Tibbets to historian John Coster-Mullen.
This erroneous statement by Tibbets does not appear anywhere in this letter and
is another complete fabrication.

Beyond the dishonorable practice of falsely taking credit for combat
which one never engaged in is the important issue of besmirching the historical
record. Things like this must not be allowed to pass, especially in an event that
is one of the most important of the 20th century. There are many, many more
errors and distortions in Mr. Pellegrino’s book. Representatives of the 509th
Composite Group would be happy to point them out.

It has been reported that the famed director, James Cameron, from
such movies as Avatar, Titanic and Terminator, may be interested in making a
film about nuclear weapons and the missions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It
has also been reported that he has optioned Charles Pellegrino’s book, Last
Train from Hiroshima as a technical and/or historical reference. The 509th
Composite Group would welcome the opportunity to help Mr. Cameron make a
historically accurate film about these important events, but strongly cautions
that certain accounts in Pellegrino’s book are complete fiction and cause great
damage to the true history, reputations, and honor of the heroes of the 509th
Composite Group.